Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house doing our traditional things...decorating cookies, eating way way way too much, our candlelight dinner, and preparing for Santa's arrival. Joe was lucky enough to only work until 3pm on Christmas Eve, and was off on Christmas Day! We had thought for sure that he would work the holiday, but no one was complaining about our good luck!

Decorating sugar cookies is a yearly event with my family, and Olivia takes her job very seriously. She really concentrated on each cookie and did some very unique designs. And when it came time to eat the cookies, she would only eat ones that she had decorated.

Olivia showing off a cookie creation.

Even Ethan joined in the decorating fun this year. This is a before shot...

And this is an after shot. This is what happened after ONE cookie! He could not believe his good fortune when Joe kept handing him bottles of sprinkles and sugar and adding more frosting. That is not the typical way of doing things in our house!

After the wonderful candlelight dinner (prepared by Aunt Rachel of course) was the reading of the books. Each family member took turns reading to each kid. That made for a lot of pictures, so I just included the best two. Here is Rachel practicing her teaching skills while reading a book to Ethan.

And Olivia listening to grandma and grandpa read "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Olivia and Ethan selected a plate of cookies for Santa, milk, and a carrot for Rudolph. Both also "wrote" a letter to him as well (and yes, he did reply via Aunt Rachel). Here is our family shot before bedtime.